Number of Thalys trains to be cut from 1 October
The coronavirus crisis had led to a fall in the number of passengers using international rail service. As a result of this the rail company Thalys that operates services between Belgium and France, The Netherlands and Germany has decided to further reduce the number of its services.
From 1 October just 40% of Thalys services will run. Currently Thalys is operate between 55% and 60% of its normal time table.
During the past few weeks the Belgian authorities has given Code Red travel advice to most of the destinations served by Thalys such as Paris and Amsterdam. Code red means that only essential travel to these destinations is permitted.
This has impacted passenger numbers on the services that operate between Brussels and Paris, Brussels and The Netherlands (via Antwerp) and Brussels and Germany (via Liège).
Since the end of August the number of passengers using the Thalys services has fallen by 50%. From 1 October 8 trains will run in both directions between Brussel and Paris. There will be 5 Thalys trains in each direction between Brussels and The Netherlands and 2 Thalys services in between Brussels and Germany.